MovieChat Forums > The Good Doctor (2017) Discussion > The Shaun's dad episode was interesting

The Shaun's dad episode was interesting

posted 5 years ago by McQualude (4231)
2 replies | jump to latest

Very minor spoilers.

I like it when shows don't take the well tread path of everyone coming together and finding forgiveness because some people don't deserve forgiveness. I guess it hits home because I had a bad falling out with a family member and when that person became terminally ill everyone wanted me to bury the hatchet and be the bigger man and all that crap. Nah. I don't have to better than anyone. But now they all resent me and I became the bad guy. Oh well. I also felt like Shaun maybe deserved some of his dad's ire as he is also intensely selfish. Maybe it's because of the autism, but not all autistic people are selfish like Shaun. And in the end, it doesn't really matter why we are the way we are, we are still responsible for how we behave, even as children.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

Agree with all, except for being responsible for the way we behave as children. Even kids who grow up around stable, mentally sound adults who model good empathetic, ethical and moral behavior won’t develop that mindset until their brains are fully matured and developed.

But it was an interesting episode. I thought the actors who played Shaun’s parents were not very good. They gave flat performances and were too amateurish to be in scenes with talents like Freddy Highmore and Richard Schiff. Disappointed they brought back Shaun’s nasally voiced roommate too. I think this is the weakest aspect of this show, the mixed talent. Scripts are interesting, but performances are uneven. Aside from a few standouts, the cast is mostly made up of talentless, wooden actors.

[–] McQualude (4231) 5 years ago

Well it's a tightly budgeted prime time show with directors for whom it's just a paycheck and a line on their resume so they don't push the actors. It is my belief that the director is more important for good acting than the actor.

As for responsible behavior, some people seemingly never develop the mindset, probably because they were not held accountable as children. Years back I had a boss with an insufferable child. She was always complaining how he was rude and acted out and I'll never forget, she then said, "it's not as if you can punish them for it." I said why not, I send my kids to their room or make them stand in the corner for being misbehavior. She just looked at me like I'd said something unfathomable. Good kids can come from bad parents and vice versa but most of the time bad kids come from bad parenting. A child doesn't have to understand why or have empathy, which comes with frontal lobe development, they just need to know how to behave and understand there are consequences for misbehaving.